Hipgnosis Songs Investors Vote Overwhelmingly for Reorganization, Reject $440 Million Catalog Sale
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Hipgnosis Songs Fund — the company that led the music-catalog gold rush of recent years by spending more than $2 billion for song assets by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many others — is facing an uncertain future as some 83.2% of its investors voted Thursday that a new board make major structural changes to the overextended company.
Investors also rejected a proposal by its leadership to shore up its finances by selling off around $440 million of its 65,000-song catalog to a sister fund backed by Blackstone.
The “no” vote, which was expected, caps months of growing shareholder frustration as the troubled company, which was founded in 2018, saw its share price drop to less than half of its value a year ago.
Now, founder Merck Mercuriadis is tasked with forging a plan “for the reconstruction, reorganization, or winding-up of the company,” according to its statement, which includes the possibility of “liquidating all or part of the company’s existing porfolio of investments,” according to a statement from the board cited in Music Week.
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